Making Connections: Using SOA to enable collaboration in travel - IBM

SOA can provide
controlled access to
specific services,
thereby protecting
confidential information.
can join the global system quickly and easily.
And the more countries that participate in the
process, the greater the potential benefits.
Should governments collaborate to extend
current API standards for working with the
travel industry, this would present a potential
win-win solution for both the travel and
transportation industry and governments. The
travel providers have a single interface for all
destination countries and an overall lower cost
to meet regulation needs. Governments gain
realtime information at a lower cost of operations.
As described previously, the SOA alternative
outlined in this scenario can co-exist with
current file transfer approaches. For both the
destination country and the airline industry,
a reduction in data management processing
can occur as realtime SOA interfaces are
used to send the data from the airlines to the
destination countries. The realtime nature of
this exchange makes the data immediately
available to destination systems, increasing the
time available for data analysis.
Still, consistent with security needs, countries
that “expose” their travel systems through SOA
services can keep a great deal of control.
They can provide controlled access to a set
of predefined, explicit services – protecting
the information they wish to keep confidential.
And since local systems sit behind the SOA
services “wall,” the systems can be updated
or replaced without affecting interfaces to
the other parties. It is the information that is
exposed and provided, not the systems themselves.
8 IBM Global Business Services
Integrating customs and other trade
stakeholders
Trade friction
Like travel, international trade is also often
beset by the problems of rapid growth. The
challenge for customs is how to effectively
handle the increase in trade volume without
becoming an impediment to the growth of
trade. Global trade features complex transactions
that include multiple stakeholders. A
key stakeholder, customs, is the linchpin of
these transactions. All other stakeholders must
interact with governments through customs
many times in executing a trade.
The complexity of trade regulations, documentation
and reporting makes it difficult
for importers, exporters and customs. The
complexity increases risk of regulatory compliance
infractions, adding cost and risk to trade
transactions. The United States, European
Union, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) and the United Nations have recognized
the impediments to trade, but have
yet to resolve the regulatory complexity and
harmonize security requirements. 7 This is more
understandable when you consider the magnitude
of the regulatory compliance problem.
According to the UN Conference on Trade and
Development, “… the average international
transaction involves 27 to 30 different parties,
40 documents, 200 data elements (30 of
which are repeated at least 30 times) and the
re-keying of 60 to 70 per cent of the data at
least once. 8 Obtaining the necessary permits
can take weeks in some economies.” 9
As a result of the complexity, the cost of
compliance with customs policies is considerable.
More specifically, the cost to comply
with existing and emerging requirements of
modernized border management grows with
each required report, data element, document,
permit, or regulation.